Backyard Gardens in Springtime

 

April in Vancouver, Washington
Our Backyard

Pulling Onions Again

Freedom opens a few doors and closes many more. 
My mind is a sea I cannot see into; I merely skim along its surface.
I think, therefore I am a living person; dead bodies don't display thinking, just stinking.
Sometimes the present alters our interpretation of the past; most often the past surrounds and infects the present. 
Wherever I go, something new becomes me. 
Be careful not to stand up for that which will cause your downfall.    
God may be very smart, but he is a poor communicator.
What ought to be cannot be derived from what is the case, but a reasonable person ought not to ignore what is the case.  
I can admire a few great persons or heroes, but seldom have much desire to try and imitate them. 
Disrespect and contempt for the body is a common trump card for spiritualists; but, our game of life does not use trump cards. 
Nonsense can sometimes improve our sense and senses. 
Prohibitions focus our aim on better choices and actions. 
Don't sell the present short on the promises of "when." 
Most tire from hatefulness; cheerfulness is abiding.
Stubborn facts are loosened up with novelty.
A sure path to the perversion of truth is to make it a belief. 
The act, the deed, the doing are the primary considerations. 
My body gave birth to my mind, is in my mind, and my body-mind thrives in our world of lived experiences. 
Objectivity is a product of our agreements, and an important feature of my imagination. 
R. Buckminster-Fuller once suggested that "God is a verb, not a noun."  Which verb?  Pretending?  Storytelling?  Fantasizing?  Believing? 
My consciousness is a vegetable soup, and the water in the soup is what I do. 
Yes, I am just this and that; but, I am also not just that and this. 
Hearing the cat purr when we pet them gently matters far more to us than whether the cat's fur is black, white, or orange. 
If you think you are damned if you do or damned if you don't, your not thinking creatively enough. 
The ten thousand things are more enchanting than the Silent One. 
To lift the mind, move the body.  

Pulling Onions: The Quips and Sayings of an Old Gardener.  Over 840 quotes.  By Mike Garofalo

Burn Me with Your Beauty Then

"How many million Aprils came
before I ever knew
how white a cherry bough could be,
a bed of squills, how blue
And many a dancing April
when life is done with me,
will lift the blue flame of the flower
and the white flame of the tree
Oh burn me with your beauty then,
oh hurt me tree and flower,
lest in the end death try to take
even this glistening hour..."
-  Sara Teasdale, Blue Squills, 1920  


April:  Quotes, Sayings, Lore, Chores

California Bees and Blooms

"California is home to over sixteen hundred species of undomesticated bees--most of them native--that populate and pollinate our gardens, fields, and urban green spaces. In this absorbing guidebook, some of the state's preeminent bee and botany experts introduce us to this diverse population. California Bees and Blooms holds a magnifying glass up to the twenty-two most common genera (and six species of cuckoo bees), describing each one's distinctive behaviors, social structures, flight season, preferred flowers, and enemies. Enhancing these descriptions are photographs of bees so finely detailed they capture pollen scattered across gauzy wings and iridescent exoskeletons.
Drawing from years of research at the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab, California Bees and Blooms presents an authoritative look at these creatures, emphasizing their vital relationship with flowers. In addition to opening our eyes to the beautiful array of wild bees in our midst, this book provides information on fifty-three bee-friendly plants and how to grow them. Just a few square feet of poppies, sage, and phacelia are enough to sustain a healthy population of wild bees, transforming an urban or suburban garden into a world that hums and buzzes with life."

California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists, 2013

The Spirit of Gardening

The Red Bluff Notebooks

The Forces of Green

"There lies within
A hidden glen
An altar made of stone.
Creeping vine
And moss entwine
To hide this ancient throne.
Tangled thorn
Grows thick to scorn
Those who seek to enter.
For though they strive
No man alive
Shall ever reach its center.
Known as Pan,
To some Green Man,
This glen is his sacred place.
He dons his hood
Of wildwood
To hide his leafy face.
The roving clans
That raped the lands,
Cut down his beloved trees.
And so, alas
As time did pass
The Green God fell to his knees. ..."
- Kristina Peters Moone, The Green Man


"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks."
-   Dylan Thomas, The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower

The Green Man

Lore, Legends, Tales, Celebrations, Springtime Symbols, Folk Stories and Plays
From the hypertext research notebooks of Mike Garofalo

This cabbage, these carrots, these potatoes,
these onions ... will soon become me.
Such a tasty fact!
- Mike Garofalo, Cuttings

Portrait of the Emperor Rudolph II as Autumn.By Arcimboldo, 1591, Held at the Museo Civico, Brescia. 

March Gardening Chores

A repost from March 9, 2015:  

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

 

Typical Weather for Our Area   Normally, in March, we have daytime high temperatures of 64ºF, nighttime low temperatures of 42ºF, and we get 2.7 inches of rain.

Red Bluff Gardening Notebooks of Karen and Mike Garofalo

March:  Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

Spring Equinox Celebrations

Spring:  Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

Gardening:  A Somaesthetic Practice


March Photographs by Karen Garofalo

March Gardening Chores in Red Bluff

Browsing and ordering from seed and garden catalogs.
Planting potted trees and shrubs.  
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Pruning and mulching dormant trees and vines. 
Repairing and sharpening tools.
Fertilizing with 16-16-16 or manure. 
Planting seeds in containers in the greenhouse.
Planting some vegetable starts in the ground.
Watering as needed.
Removing deadwood from trees and shrubs. 
Moving bulbs. 
Raking up fallen twigs and branches.
Weeding around the base of small trees and shrubs.
Mowing and weeding as needed.
Cleaning and repairing drip irrigation lines. 
Making up To Do lists. 
Spring Cleaning inside the house. 
Spraying dormant trees and shrubs. 
Painting fences and art objects as needed. 
Bringing spring flowers indoors to enjoy. 
Developing Spring Resolutions for personal improvements. 
Fixing up lawn mowers and other power tools for outdoor work.   
Sharpening and oiling hand tools. 
Home improvement projects. 
Roto-tilling and double digging as needed. 
Updating March and Spring webpages. 
Reading, reading, reading.


Karen Garofalo took all the photographs shown below at our home in Red Bluff, California.

Bare Root Planting Time

Repost form December 2012:

We planted over 250 trees and shrubs at our Red Bluff 5 acre ranch in Northern California. Our fruit orchard consisted of 125 trees.

In December and early January of each year, Karen and I plant bare root trees and vines.  We also plant potted plants.  We also dig up and move plants to new locations.  

This year, we are planting the following bare root trees and vines: a Splash Pluot, a Bartlett pear, a non-pariel almond tree, a neplus ultra almond tree, an Indian free peach variety, and a Moorpark apricot tree.  Among the potted plants are oleander shrubs, bay laurel trees, black oak trees, grape vines, mock oranges, bottle brush, and others.  

We started a new row in the northeast quadrant of the south field.  In the first row, from north to south, we planted: 1) Transcendent Crabapple, 2) Golden Russett Apple.  

We dig holes, plant the tree or shrub, stake trees as needed, prune excess branches to shape and reduce stress, and water.  

Layers of Life

The Onion of Being
Never stops growing
Layering layers over layers---
Giving us one peel a day
On our life's way

Pulling Onions

 

 

What the Crap?

Shoveling Some Compost Crap

By Mike Garofalo

Back in the Spring of 2007, I was working in my large garden in the Sacramento Valley. I was shoveling and spading compost, sand, straw, and manure into my clay soil. That got me tp thinking about how gardeners have fertilized for centuries before commercial phosphate fertilizers. I did some research in my many home library gardening books, and I searched the Internet for more information. I learned that the Chinese have been using human and animal nitrogenous wastes, yes Shit, as one element in their creation of good compost for forty centuries. I then created an informative webpage on Fertilizer practices, and then a humorous poem on the subject that I posted to my Cloud Hands Blog in 2007.

So, this poem I will read tonight from 2007 is just some Old Shit.

However, if you've never heard it before, it's some fresh New Shit at your door.

This poems title is: Shoveling Some Compost Crap.

 

Gardeners know all about bull shit, horse shit, and chicken shit.
They might be lucky shits, dumb shits, crazy shits, or have shit for brains;
but they shovel crappy compost shit for tasty beans anyway.

They know that some nights are colder than shit,
and some days are hotter than shit,
and other days are just plain shitty,
other crappy days get in the way,
but they step in the shit anyway.

Gardeners all throw composted crap
or sling shit, shoot the shit, occasionally catch some shit,
or duck when the shit hits the fan.

Now, I recommend, that You had better give a shit,
and get your shit together;
or you will find yourself in deep shit,
smelling like shit,
treated like shit,
and end up being shit out of luck.

I felt crappy today,
nobody gives a shit anyway;
we all have too damn much crap to do,
plus picking up the shit from our human zoo.

Once you know your shit, you don't need to know anything else,
and you'll be has happy as a pig in shit;
if you don't know your crap, you'll be told to shit or get off the pot,
told that you don't know the difference between shit and shine'ola,
served shit on a shingle,
get a ripped off by a crappy deal,
told your ideas arn't worth a shit.

If you can't shit or pee
your in deep shit
dying from a shitty disease,
that won't scare the crap out of you.
Damnit! Damnit! Shit!

You can smoke some shit,
drink until your shit faced,
buy some more shit,
feel like shit,
look like shit,
and find yourself in a boat load or mountain of shit.

Crap! You can have too much shit,
not enough shit, the right shit,
the wrong shit,
or a lot of weird shit.

In summary: Shit Happens! Please!

Fertilizer: Quotes, Sayings, Jokes

Poetry by Mike Garofalo
25 Steps and Beyond

 

 

Plans for February Gardening

Repost from Febuary 2021: 

Location:  Vancouver, Washington   USDA Zone 8a

February Gardening Tips and Ideas
From Michael P. Garofalo

February Gardening Tips from Tsugawa Nursery

Here are my gardening chores for February:

Rake up fallen sticks and fir cones
Rake up all deciduous leaves
Fertilize plants and lawns
Add topsoil as needed
Add pea gravel and regular gravel as needed
Lower the level of the walking by east side of house
Scoop up all dogshit in walking areas
Keep work areas and supplies neat, covered, and out of sight
Make sure all garden pots drain properly
Water permanent indoor plants and over-wintering potted plants
Water any outdoor plants that need water
Browse seed racks in stores and catalogs
Plant shrubs when available
Look at outdoor furniture on display
Read gardening books
Add artistic touches to the garden
Repair and improve fencing
Secure the fence edge so my dog can't dig under and escape
Add level bricks and pavers for walkway paths in the garden


Here is where I shop in the Vancouver, Washington, area: 

Tsugawa Nursery, Woodland, Washington

Yard'n Garden Land, Salmon Creek, Highway 99 and 102nd Street, Vancouver, Washington

Shorty's Garden Center, Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver, Washington

Lowes, 76 Street and 117th Ave (Lewisville Highway 503), N.E. Vancouver, Washington

Home Depot, Andresen and Paden Parkway, N.E. Vancouver, Washington

February Gardening Chores
Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA
USDA Zone 9

Typical Seasonal Weather for Our Area, USDA Zone 9 Normally, in February, we have high daytime temperatures of 59ºF, low nighttime temperatures of 40ºF, and get 3.4 inches of rain.

Red Bluff Gardening Notebooks of Karen and Mike Garofalo

Cloud Hands Blog Follow the seasons in the Northern California garden of Karen and Mike with their notes, links, resources, quotes, poems, and photos.

February Garden Activities and Chores in Red Bluff
USDA Zone 9

February: Quotes, Sayings, Poems.  Compiled by Mike Garofalo.  


February Gardening Chores

Browsing and ordering from seed and garden catalogs.
Pruning leafless trees and shrubs.
Weeding and tending the winter vegetable garden.
Relax and read books.  
The soil is usually too wet and cold for much digging.
Keeping cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Make sure that the cuttings in protected areas do not dry out.
Repair fences.
Put straw mulch over fertilized vegetable garden areas not planted.
Distribute fertilizer and minerals.
Weed the sunny vegetable garden.  
Prune and mulch dormant perennials.
Planting bare root trees and shrubs.  
Remove dead trees, shrubs, branches, and twigs.
Enjoy the bulbs and rosemary in bloom.
Repair and sharpen tools.
Construct gardening boxes and flats.
Write a poem. Keep a gardening journal.
Fertilize with 20-9-9 or 15-15-15.
Trees without leaves need little or no watering.
Take a walk in your garden.
Sit and observe.
Turn the compost pile.  
Burn piles of gardening cuttings saved since last February.

Here are some photographs of our yard and gardens in February:

Gardening and Contentment

"I've made an odd discovery, every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet, when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite."
- Bertrand Russell, mathematician and philosopher

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise and Respected Persons

Happiness

The Spirit of Gardening

Who Gathers and Chops Firewood for the Cook's Kitchen?

 The Fireplace Records, Chapter 8

Huineng Chopping Bamboo
Ink on paper by Liang Kai
Circa 1200 CE

Who Gathers and Chops Firewood for the Cook's Kitchen?
When he leaves, somebody new will take his place. 

Huineng (638-713 CE) was an hardworking monk who quietly followed all the Temple lifestyle rules.  His job was to gather firewood to use in the kitchen or elsewhere at the Temple.  He pulled a little cart and gathered sticks, driftwood, wood donations, and downed limbs.  He sawed, split up, and cut up dried wood to give to the cooks in the Temple kitchen or others tending fires.  He did this humble task well for many years.  

Huineng is remembered for emphasizing the power of simple useful work activities as a valid path to enlightenment (e.g., gardening, Temple maintenance, cooking, chores, firewood working, samu = work, transcribing, etc.)  Huineng became enlightened while chopping up bamboo.  He later became a leading Zen Master featured in many stories.  

Also, we all have roles, duties, work, and responsibilities to others and to ourselves. This is an underlying reality.  

"The kitchen was a hell of heat.  Woks large enough to bathe a child in sat on roaring, wood-burning brick stoves.  Young monks fed the insatiable fires, while others stirred the boiling rice.  Some chopped vegetables or prepared them for pickling. They were all under the direction of a senior priest, who was known only as "the Old Cook.""
- By Deng Ming Dao;, Chronicles of Tao, p. 166
The Kitchen of a Daoist Temple Monastery in the Huashan Mountains of China, circa 1930's.  

Somebody is still chopping wood for a fireplace stove, or providing you with the electricity or gas or coal for you kitchen ovens and stoves and cooking appliances.  

Without the fire in the kitchen for cooking we could not survive. 

So, who chops the firewood for your kitchen stove?

Comments, Sources

Refer to Cases ??? in Koan Classics.  OK. find any?  

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Mondos/Tests

The Daodejing by Laozi  

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans 

Fireplaces, Campfires, Stoves

The Fireplace Records By Michael P. Garofalo

November Gardening Chores

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

Typical Weather for Our Area

Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens

The Spirit of Gardening

Removing dead and non-productive summer vegetable crops.
Turn in composted steer manure and compost into the cleared vegetable garden.
Ordering from seed and garden catalogs.
Planting potted trees and shrubs.
Putting winter crops in the ground and harvesting greens: onions, lettuce, radishes, garlic, beets, chard, cabbage.
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Planting bulbs.
Prune and mulch dormant perennials.
Prune fruit trees.
Storing and repairing tools.
Cleaning, storing, repairing and removing gasoline from equipment.
Fertilize with 20-9-9 or 16-16-16.
Trees without leaves need little or no watering.
Reduce or eliminate watering, watering as needed, depending upon rainfall, normally 3.1 inches in November.
Picking pumpkins, squash, colored corn, and other crops for Thanksgiving decorations.
Pruning grape vines.
Picking and storing peppers.
Raking leaves and add to compost piles and mulch layers.
Lawn care: aerate soil and fertilize.
Digging holes and post holes in cooler weather.
Burning dead trees and shrubs in burn pile.
Watering potted plants.
Reading gardening books and catalogs. 

November: Quotes, Lore, Poems

Gardening Essentials


"As the biocentric view suggests, the garden prospers when control is balanced by equal measures of humility and benevolence. A balance is struck. Control, servitude, respect, imagination, pragmatism, an ecological conscience, compliance, and a certain measure of mysticism and altruism all meld together to provide nurturance. Try to separate the various aspects into their constituent parts - grant any one of them the status of fundamental gardening definition and one soon skews the entire process. Put them back together again in the service of the two-way street called nurturance, and we express the state of grace called gardening."
- Jim Nollman, Why We Garden: Cultivating a Sense of Place, 1994


"Why do plants have such a positive impact on us?
There are a number of reasons, including:
They have a predictable cycle of life that provides comfort in our time of rapid change.
They are responsive but non-threatening.
They form no opinions or judgments about their caregivers.
They soften our man-made environment.
They enable us to change or improve our environment.
They promote relaxation and tranquility."
- Gardening - Therapy for Mind, Body and Soul, Proxima Health System, Atlanta

Pulling Onions Again 2025

 

Pulling Onions
By Mike Garofalo

The Dumpling Discourse

 The Fireplace Records, Chapter 44

The Dumpling Discourse

It was a hot day in July when Carol and Adolf met in a tea shop in Portland. They sipped iced tea and chatted about Taoism for an hour.

Adolf asked Carol, "What is beyond the Tao?" Carol answered, "Either the Dark Void or preparing hot oatmeal."

Adolf sarcastically replied, "Yunmen is direct, he says '"Dumplings.' You are caught in either/or, dualisms, and straying from the spot!" Carol said "Purported Zen Masters seldom cook."

Adolf raised his right hand, like Gutei, and gave Carol the middle finger. Carol slapped the finger of his right hand.

Adolf got up and went to the toilet. While urinating, like Master Omori Sogen, he was suddenly awakened. While he was away, Carol left for home.

She worked in her home garden. She weeded and watered. She picked two squash. Like the Tao, she grew living beings. She went indoors and cooked some hot oatmeal. She added raisins to the mush. She ate. She smiled. Her dark blue bowl was then empty. She was ordinary and clear mined. 

Comments, Sources, Observations, Koans, Poems, Quips:

Omori Sogen, "Introduction to Zen Training" Tuttle, 2001,2020.

"What is talk transcending the Buddhas and Patriarchs?", Yunmen's translated answers "Sesame Cakes", "Rice cakes", "Dumplings."
See BOS 78, ZE 42, ENT 88, WWSF 348, BCR 77

Gutei's One Finger Zen
BCR 19, BOS 84, DSMS 245, GB 30, SOH 21

If the answer can be 'the oak tree in the courtyard,' then the answer can be 'eating oatmeal with raisins.'

Irrelevant answers are a staple spontaniety of Zen tricksters. 

Some say nonsensical Zen Koan answers are free and natural poety; however, they are often just bad poetry.

Which finger was the "one finger?"

People are Makers, Imitating the Dao - The Great Maker, Doer, Creator.  Sometimes even seeming to go Beyond the Dao.

636 Riddles, Jokes, Witticisms, Humor

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Stories. 

Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans

Zen Buddhist Koans: Indexes, Bibliography, Commentary, Information

The Daodejing by Laozi

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings, Quips, Maxims, Humor

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

The Fireplace Records (Blog Version) By Michael P. Garofalo

The Spirit of Gardening

October Morning Mild

A repost from 2013

"O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away."
-   Robert Frost, October

October: Poems, Quotes, Sayings, Lore

"Gardening is the slowest of the performing arts."
-  Mac Keith Griswold

The month of October, for us, in Red Bluff, California, means cooler daytime temperatures, some rain, brisk mornings, falling leaves, ripening apples and persimmons, closing down the summertime vegetable garden, planting a winter garden, blooming chrysanthemums, longer walks, pruning, fertilizing, and cleaning up the yard and gardens.  

A few photographs of our garden are included below.  The photographs were all taken by Karen Garofalo in October 2013.

Summertime Gardening

Repost from August 2015:

This past week, the daytime temperatures have ranged from 95-105F, humidity under 30%, gentle breezes, and terrible air quality due to the many fires west of us in the Yolly Bolly mountains and Trinity range.  Three fire fighters have lost their lives while battling these terrible forest fires.

Our summer garden has been productive this year in terms of tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, kale, zucchini, herbs, and cantaloupes.

We have been pulling up vegetable plants in our sunny garden that have run their course and are now fading away.

The daytime heat has stressed all the plants despite reasonable watering.

The Spirit of Gardening:  Over 3,500 Quotes, Sayings, Facts, or Poems.  Compiled by Mike Garofalo.

The Month of August

 

August Gardening Chores

Repost from August 2014:

August Gardening Chores

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA
USDA Zone 9
Typical Weather for Our Area
Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens
The Spirit of Gardening

August Gardening Chores for Us

Water plants: take advantage of cool early morning hours, use daytime shade, water plants deeply and less frequently. 
Avoid watering leaves during the heat of the day.
Water in the early morning. 
Use any ditch water carefully and wisely. 
Conserve water during our drought in California. 

Move potted plants to areas that get some shade in the afternoon, e.g, along the east side of a fence that runs north/south. 
Water potted plants carefully on very hot days.
Mow lawns infrequently with high cut settings.
Prune branches of trees; remove dead limbs and branches. 
Mulch and compost: cuttings, leaves, twigs, chips, shredded paper, garbage.
Water compost pile areas.
Manage cutworms, larva, grasshoppers and other garden pests.
Weed around vegetables.
Use mulch to help control weeds and cool soil.
Maintain the lawn mowing equipment and power tools.
Work on carpentry projects.
Pick and save or eat fresh vegetables and fruits.
Thin out excess fruit on trees.
Mulch with straw, chips, compost.
Train vines on support structures.
Read, listen to music, relax and rest in the shade during the heat of the day.
Tend to and enjoy annuals in bloom.
Maintain lawn: water, fertilize, mow, clean, plant, spray, etc..
Mulch, mulch, mulch, mulch....
Harvest and preserve fruits and vegetables.
Paint outdoor art objects. 
Cut and stack wood so it can dry thoroughly. 



 
"Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes."
-  Robert Louis Stevenson, Summer Sun 

August: Quotes, Poems, Sayings


Lammas: Extensive Bibliography, Links, Lore, Poems, Prayers, Preparations, Crafts, Quotes, Notes

Summer Season

Months and Seasons Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Verses, Lore, Myths, Holidays Celebrations, Folklore, Reading, Links, Quotations Information, Weather, Gardening Chores Compiled by Mike Garofalo
Winter	Spring	Summer	Fall
January	April	July	October
February	May	August	November
March	June	September	December